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DARPA Wants Ideas On Weaponizing Off-the-Shelf Tech (ieee.org)

Posted by timothy on from the challenge-accepted dept.

An anonymous reader writes: The good news is that some of today's most advanced technologies are cheap and easy to find, both online and on the shelves of major chain stores. That's also the bad news, according to DARPA. The defense agency is nervous that criminals and terrorists will turn off-the-shelf products into tools and devices to harm citizens or disrupt American military operations. On Friday, DARPA announced a new project called 'Improv' that invites technologists to propose designs for military applications or weaponry built exclusively from commercial software, open source code, and readily available materials. The program's goal is to demonstrate how easy it is to transform everyday technology into a system or device that threatens national security. See also this story about transforming into weapons items commonly found in the purportedly secure area of U.S. airports.

5 of 173 comments (clear)

  1. let's go fishing with DARPA by turkeydance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    for readily available materials which will be 'tracked' in the future. please submit your ideas so we can watch you, too.

  2. Huh? by khasim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The defense agency is nervous that criminals and terrorists will turn off-the-shelf products into tools and devices to harm citizens or disrupt American military operations.

    As opposed to just buying a gun?

    The average "criminal" is NOT going to re-write code or anything like that. S/He will use the same tried-and-true methods that have proven successful for so many years.

    This is STUPID.

  3. The horse is way out of the barn by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's pretty easily possible for an amateur to put together their own cruise missle, encrypted communications that admit to no theoretical methods to break them if they're used correctly, spread spectrum radio that you can't tell is there, various sorts of jammers for GPS, phones, etc., various bombs and poisons.

    Not that I really want to tell this to Congress.

    --
    Bruce Perens.
    1. Re:The horse is way out of the barn by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Look into DIY Drones. Ardupilot is sufficient for a lot of what you are asking for. There's a guy who has successfully flown a model plane across the Atlantic twice. He didn't have constant communications, but it had an HF transmitter and GPS, and it kept hams informed of where it was.

      Some of the things you ask for aren't really necessary. Shelf life, for example. Constant communications. Hack proofing. It's really just necessary for a bad guy to put it together and send it toward the nearest city with a few sticks of dynamite. Effective terror weapon. Can distribute poison too. And if one fails, the authorities won't necessarily notice.

      --
      Bruce Perens.
  4. You believe them? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's just a line. "Yeah, we're worried about terrorists and criminals using off-the-shelf stuff. We have no interest in it ourselves. Yeah, that's the ticket!"

    Wars are extremely expensive - they have ruined many states - and I see this as an attempt to lower costs at the defense department.

    Just my cynical 200 cents (inflation).